Expert view
22 July 2025
A decade with Farm Africa
By John Reizenstein, Chair of Trustees, July 2019 – July 2025
After more than a decade at Farm Africa, my time as Chair has come to an end. It has been a fantastic and rewarding experience: four years as a trustee, followed by six as Chair, working with expert teams in eastern Africa and London, and visiting our projects to see the tangible benefits they help create.
As trustees, we are trusted to look after Farm Africa on behalf of the people who we support, the farmers and rural communities in eastern Africa whose livelihoods and futures depend on agriculture. Our Board is made up of around a dozen volunteers, men and women based in London, France and across Africa, bringing together diverse expertise from various worlds to help guide the charity.
I’ve spent my professional career in the finance sector in London. But my first role was in industrial development in the small, rural country of eSwatini, formerly Swaziland, where agriculture is a vital industry.
Two decades later, I returned to Africa to volunteer at schools in rural Mozambique with Save the Children and I was shocked to see how little had changed in 20 years for many rural communities. Despite international advances, the lives of smallholder farmers remained the same: subsistence-based and precarious.
"I realised then that agriculture holds the key to not only change people’s lives, but also to transform global issues like climate change. I knew that if the opportunity arose, I wanted to get involved in agriculture in Africa."
Farm Africa was the perfect place to do that – an organisation that supports farmers on the ground with technical expertise. So, in 2014 I joined the Board of Trustees, at a time when the charity was making a significant impact. Delivering small but excellent and important programmes with a respected name in the sector.
Over the past ten years, our programmes have improved and grown. We’ve reached hundreds of thousands of people. And we’ve focused on what we do best: providing technical agricultural expertise to rural communities.
I’ve had the very fortunate opportunity to visit our projects, most recently in Embu, Kenya, where I saw our work on regenerative agriculture. These trips are always impressive. You see the tangible impact on the ground. You enjoy interesting conversations with farmers. You have lively debates with our committed and passionate teams. I always leave feeling grateful, inspired and motivated to share our work.
In recent years, that motivation has been more important than ever, with difficulties such as the COVID-19 pandemic and conflict in Tigray to face.
Today’s world remains volatile with rising global issues such as the climate, fragmented food supply chains, migration and tariffs, making Farm Africa’s mission increasingly relevant.
In moments of uncertainty, I’ve often turned to our strategy on a page for a dose of inspiration. I love this page. It’s a simple but powerful reminder of what we are here to do and how we are going to do it. It puts an emphasis on sustainability: helping rural communities to build sustainable futures despite global challenges, while also ensuring our own organisation remains sustainable so that we can keep delivering meaningful impact for years to come.
I may be stepping back from formal duties but I will remain an eager supporter and advocate for Farm Africa. Thank you to my fellow trustees, past and present, the committees I have worked with and the many teams across Farm Africa for your support. I am delighted that Amar Inamdar will succeed me as Chair and wish him great success. It has been a privilege to be part of a quarter of Farm Africa’s journey.
